Keep on Truckin' - Chevy Truck Floorboard Replacement

After a thorough gutting, the only thing left on this truck is the cab frame and wheels.

Besides all the cool musclecars and classic cruisers that Chevrolet has built over the decades, let's not forget about the working man's truck. These former hay-haulers have long been a favorite of the restoration/hot rod crowd. Just take a look at most any Super Chevy show across the country and it's a safe bet half the vehicles will be Chevy trucks.

3/13

It always helps to have an extra set of hands on a chore like this. Friend and neighbor Greg Smith jumped right in and is helping with the project. He's suggesting that I chop the roof down a few inches, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

The truck I'm now working on in my driveway is a '58 Apache Fleetside longbed. I've wanted one since I was 15 years old, and now that I've got one, I have no plans to sell it. This truck was my daily driver for a long time, but problems arose and I parked it for more than five years.

4/13

Wow, will you look at that body cancer! This is one of several panels that will eventually need replacing. If I let it rot any longer, I'll be stopping this vehicle like Fred Flintstone.

In piecemeal fashion, I've been bringing the old gal back to decent running condition. A huge part of that process is the suspension and rotted sheetmetal. More on the suspension in a future web article. Today, it's high time to start replacing the rotted metal in the truck, beginning with the floors. This is only the first step in about 20 required to bring it back from the grave. One the greatest things about these Chevy trucks is the amount of aftermarket parts, sheetmetal, etc., that you can easily find and purchase. After spending days looking over the LMC catalog, it was time to get started on the floors and toe boards. LMC has it all, so here we go.

SOURCES

LMC Truckwww.lmctruck.com

Miller Welderswww.millerwelds.com

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Keep on Truckin' - Chevy Truck Floorboard Replacement

After a thorough gutting, the only thing left on this truck is the cab frame and wheels.

It always helps to have an extra set of hands on a chore like this. Friend and neighbor Greg Smith jumped right in and is helping with the project. He's suggesting that I chop the roof down a few inches, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

Wow, will you look at that body cancer! This is one of several panels that will eventually need replacing. If I let it rot any longer, I'll be stopping this vehicle like Fred Flintstone.

Here's what the full passenger-side floor and toe board panel looks like. Of course we don't plan to use the entire piece.

Outlined in red is the area we'll be cutting out and replacing.

After a quick check underneath the truck to make sure we weren't going to cut anything vital, it was time to put on the safety goggles and cut away.

Here's another shot of the driver-side floor panel from LMC. The hard part of this install is trimming it down to the specific size you need.

After several test fits and more cutting, this is the exact size and shape of the floor we will use.

Take you time in building up the tack welds. You can easily overheat and warp a panel if you don't move around the panel while tacking it into place.

The power of Blue! The perfect welder for the home garage is this Millermatic Autoset140 MIG welder. No need to worry about a 220-volt socket because it plugs right into the average 115-volt home outlet. The Millermatic 140 can easily handle metal from 24 gauge up 3/16th of an inch. So if you need to weld brackets to your frame, it won't be a problem. And, of course, it works great for sheetmetal. Yes, that's a former shopping cart that now works as the welding cart.

After stitch-welding the panels, the welds are ready to be ground smooth.

OK, so I got a little overzealous on my grinding and had to go back and re-weld areas where I took off too much. Other than that, this section of floor is done. Next time, I'll replace the other panels on the truck and attempt to smooth the firewall.

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